Kindergarten student gets early Valentine

Stout Elementary Principal David Lougee, from left, looks on as Carylon, 5, and Madison, 4, see their father, Mark Zollinger, come onto the stage at the elementary school on Tuesday. the girls' mother Laci Zollinger holds young brother Traydon. (Photo: Randal Seyler/Sun-News)Buy Photo

Kindergarten student Carylon Zollinger, 5, holds a photo of her father, Mark Zollinger, who is currently serving in Afghanistan but who came home on leave on Tuesday and surprised his daughter at an assembly at G.W. Stout Elementary School. (Photo: Randal Seyler/Sun-News)

SILVER CITY – Valentine’s Day came early at G.W. Stout Elementary School.

Army Specialist Mark Zollinger arrived home on Tuesday from Afghanistan, where he is in the middle of a tour of duty, to surprise his 5-year-old daughter Carylon, a Kindergarten student at Stout Elementary.

The surprise reunion occurred during a school assembly in the cafeteria, where children were getting photos taken for Valentine’s Day in front of a big heart.

Carylon was at the assembly, with a photo of her father cradled in her lap. Her mother, Laci Zollinger, was also there, but Laci knew about the surprise hiding on stage behind the giant Valentine.

Carylon’s Kindergarten teacher Laura Brown, along with Grant County Veterans Service Officer Bradley Brock, who is also Brown’s boyfriend, spent Sunday preparing the stage in the cafeteria for the presentation.

“The mother called me a couple weeks back and said she was hoping Carylon’s father could come home for the birth of their next baby, and asked if we could do a celebration in the classroom,” Brown said. “I said, ‘Oh, no, we can do better than that!”

Private residents are also providing the couple a romantic get away with dinner and a free night in a secluded guest house.

"It is wonderful to see the community come together for this family," Brown said. "Silver City is a wonderful place."

Carylon was expecting to just take a photo with her mother while holding her father’s photo. When she was called up on the stage to take the photo with her mother, Stout Elementary Principal David Lougee asked if there wasn’t something that would make the photo a little bit better.

That was when her father came out from behind the stage.

“It was pretty sweet,” Brown said. “Brad and I spent several hours on Sunday making the stage and the big valentine to hide behind, and we had to get the maintenance crew in to remove the bar from the cafeteria door so we could get it into the cafeteria. It was a team effort for sure.”

Zollinger is home on paternity leave for 10 days, and he said he expects the newest addition to his family to be born any day now.

Laci Zollinger said although she knew about the reunion, the children were definitely surprised. Carylon was joined on stage by her younger sister, Madison, 4, and her little brother, 19-month-old Traydon.

Zollinger said the trip from Afghanistan back to Silver City took six days, with his first flight leaving on Jan. 21. He will return to Afghanistan to complete his tour of duty, which will end in May. He shipped out to Afghanistan on his birthday, Sept. 25.

Zollinger and family live in Casper, Wyoming, but his wife and children are in Silver City while he is deployed overseas to be near his parents, Richard and Gretchen Zollinger, who also were on hand for the family reunion.

Brock said he had been working with Brown to plan the reunion for about two weeks, and they just found out last week that Zollinger was definitely going to get to come home.

As for the Valentine’s Day photos, they were moved up under the pretext of needing time to take the photos and prepare the valentines ahead of the holiday, which is still 18 days away.

“This was totally for their benefit, so we could have the assembly,” Brown said.

When Zollinger came out from behind the huge Valentine, one of the children exclaimed, “It’s magic!”

And for Carylon and her siblings, having her father home is probably the best kind of magic there is.